Why My 3TB Drive Only Shows 746GB
I've just purchased a 3TB Western Digital Green drive, but there's a problem. This new hard drive only shows 746GB on my PC. The computer is an old Dell Vostro 430 i7, and I couldn't find any relevant information in BIOS. Disk Management also doesn't allow me to extend the partition. Why does my 3TB drive only show 746GB? How to fix it? Thanks!
Best Answered by
Oliver· Answered on Jun 18, 2024
The reason why a 3TB drive only shows 746GB is the limitation in the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table.
MBR is commonly used by older operating systems and BIOS firmware. This partition table can only address up to 2.2TB of storage space. Thus, if your hard drive is larger than 2TiB with the MBR partition style, only 2.2TB is available for users.
To fix this issue, you need to use a newer operating system and BIOS that support the GUID Partition Table (GPT) format, which does not have the 2.2TB limit.
EaseUS Partition Master Professional offers a powerful feature that can help you complete the MBR to GPT conversion without losing data on it.
Follow the steps here:
Step 1. Back up your hard drive to avoid unexpected data loss.
Step 2. Open EaseUS Partition Master and go to the Disk Converter tab.
Step 3. Click "Convert MBR to GPT" and select your target hard drive.
Step 4. Hit "Convert" to start the process.
Then, your hard drive should be able to show its full 3TB capacity.
Related article: MBR VS GPT | What's the Difference and Which Is Better
